The Book of Joy

month, year by year, decade by decade. Perhaps I will share a story from
my own life.
“When I was sixteen, I lost my freedom in two senses. The previous
Dalai Lama had not taken on political responsibility until he was
eighteen, but in my case, the people asked me to become head of the
government early because the situation was very serious, as the Chinese
military had already invaded the eastern part of Tibet. When the Chinese
authorities reached Lhasa, things became even more delicate, and I lost
my freedom in a second way, as they severely restricted my actions.
“This political responsibility also greatly damaged my studies. As I
carried out my geshe examinations at the major monastic universities
around Lhasa in central Tibet, the Tibetan soldiers had to stand guard on
the mountainside nearby. Then my final examination was to be in the
courtyard of the central temple in Lhasa. There were some worries about
the Chinese military, and some Tibetan officials wanted to change the
location because they thought it was too dangerous, but I said I did not
think it was necessary. But during the debate I had a lot of anxiety and
worry, not just for my safety but also for that of my people.
“So then at age twenty-four, when I escaped to India in March 1959, I
lost my own country. In one way, this made me very sad, particularly
when I think of the serious question of whether the Tibetan nation, with
its unique cultural heritage, will actually survive or not. The Tibetan
civilization has existed for ten thousand years, and in some areas of the
Tibetan plateau, human habitation existed for as many as thirty thousand
years. And today’s situation of Tibet is the most serious crisis in the
entire history of the nation. During the Cultural Revolution, some
Chinese officials made a pledge that within fifteen years the Tibetan
language must be eliminated. So they burned books, such as the three-
hundred-volume Tibetan canon of scriptures translated from India, as
well as several thousand volumes written by Tibetans themselves. I was
told that the books would burn for one or two weeks. Our statues and our
monasteries were being destroyed. So it was a very, very serious
situation.
“And when we came to India as refugees in 1959, we were strangers in